Oceans & Coasts

February 2012: A new website has been launched for Many Strong Voices (MSV), a programme linking climate change adaptation and mitigation activities in the Arctic and small islands development States (SIDS).

24 February 2012: The Global Partnership for Oceans, a coalition of governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private interests, has been launched to address the challenges to oceans management and governance, including over-fishing, marine degradation and habitat loss.

Market-based measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international shipping will be among the agenda items discussed by the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), when it meets for its 63rd session. The MEPC will also discuss issues relating to the implementation of the ship recycling and ballast water management conventions, and consider the adoption of amendments to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) relating to reception facilities in small island developing States.

20 February 2012: The Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention) has announced that, following the approval by the Standing Committee of the draft resolutions for consideration by the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties (COP 11), the Secretariat is finalizing and translating the draft resolutions into the three Convention languages (English, French and Spanish).

20 February 2012: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has released the Global Environment Outlook-5 (GEO-5) Summary for Policy Makers, which was negotiated and endorsed by governments on 31 January 2012. The summary was released as a prelude to the full report, which will be released in June, in advance of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20).

17 February 2012: The World Radiocommunication Conference 2012 (WRC 12) concluded with the signing of the Final Acts revising the Radio Regulations, including updating the Resolution on radiocommunications use for Earth observation applications and reaffirming their considerable societal and economic value.

16 February 2012: The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has awarded over US$1.3 million in grants to 18 projects that will support communities in Canada, Mexico and the US in their efforts to address environmental problems at the local level.

10 February 2012: The 17th Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties (COP 17) to the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean and its Protocols concluded with the adoption of the Paris Declaration, which calls for a “blue” economy to safeguard and promote a clean, healthy, and productive Mediterranean environment.

3 February 2012: The subregional headquarters for the Caribbean of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) recently convened an expert group to discuss the status of regional efforts to develop economic frameworks to assess the economic and social impacts of climate change in the Caribbean in key sectors.

9 February 2012: Tara Oceans, a mission carried out under the auspices of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has arrived in New York, US, to raise awareness of the impacts of climate change on oceans. The scientific expedition has been travelling the world's oceans for almost three years, investigating the effects of climate change on biodiversity and marine ecosystems, with a particular focus on plankton.